Séminaire du Québec

Séminaire du Québec Review

Behind these gates lies a tranquil courtyard surrounded by austere stone buildings with rising steeples; these structures have housed classrooms and student residences since 1663. François de Montmorency Laval, the first bishop of New France, founded Québec Seminary to train priests in the new colony. In 1852 the seminary became Université Laval, the first Catholic university in North America. In 1946 the university moved to a larger campus in suburban Ste-Foy.

Today priests live on the premises, and Laval's architecture school occupies part of the building. The on-site Musée de l'Amérique Française gives tours of the seminary grounds and the interior in summer. Tours start from the museum, at 2 côte de la Fabrique. The small Second Empire-style Chapelle Extérieure, at the west entrance of the seminary, was built in 1888 after fire destroyed the 1750 original. Joseph-Ferdinand Peachy designed the chapel; its interior is patterned after that of the Église de la Trinité in Paris.